by Arthur Butt
"You okay?" I asked.
"Yeah."
We walked to the bank, the empty shells of buildings leering down at us. "Hey Bev, open up, it's us," I shouted.
No answer.
Kat crept forward, waving her hands in front of her. "Bev? B-E-V! Where are you?"
We searched the whole area in front of the bank and crossed the street, doing the same on the other side.
"Nothing." Kat dropped her arms, lower lip sticking out, eyes narrowing as she scanned each vacant lot. She slumped to the curb and exclaimed, "Where is she?"
"I told her to stay here," I complained.
"Are you sure you told her not to move?" Kat said.
"Well. . ." What had I said? "I didn't exactly say to stay here." I pointed to the pavement. "I told her not to kill anyone, but she knew what I meant."
"Oh, great, why didn't you tell her not to go anywhere? You know how she is." Kat scuffed her foot and kicked a chunk of rock across the street. "She could be anywhere!" Next, she picked up a brick from the gutter and hurled it with all her strength. The block wobbled halfway across the road, and bounced next to the stone. "Where can she have wandered off to?"
"Dunno." I sat next to her, gazing around while trying to think. "If she'd driven our way we would'a heard her," I said at last. "Nobody stole her, you can bet your life for sure. Maybe she was bored and snuck off to the edge of town."
"Ooooh, I am so going to scold her," Kat muttered. "This is no time to start playing games."
"Ditto. Let's keep checking. She has to be somewhere."
We moved toward the edge of the village, yelling Bev's name and pausing to hear any reply. I kept searching for signs of her passing; Bev left a mighty big track – crushed vehicles, snapped trees, and broken dwellings, but the wreckage of the battle made everything a mess anyway.
We passed the ruins of the main gate. I was growing desperate. In my mind, I pictured us walking all the way to Morgan's headquarters alone, trying to drag Pop away with soldiers shooting. Worse yet, what if his men had come along and somehow captured her? Bev with us, not trying to harm anyone, was bad enough, but Bev with those scavengers? I shuddered at the thought of what she could do.
Kat stared at the empty road leading out of town in dismay. "Where the heck did she go?" she wailed.
A jumble of smashed woods and bushes about a quarter of a mile away caught my eye and I pointed. "I bet she's over there. Those wrecked trees have Bev written all over them. Let's check it out." I started hurrying as best I could, Kat running ahead of me, casting impatient glances behind when I slowed.
We reached the woods and I yelled, "Bev? Bev – are you here?"
I heard a rustling in the snapped branches.
"Bev – we've been searching all –"
Four men emerged.
Skels.
They were dirty and unkempt, wearing ripped clothes scavenged from some garbage heap. They smelled as if they hadn't taken a bath in a year.
"Well, see what we found," the leader exclaimed, "Little Raggedy-Ann and Andy."
"Don't seem much," declared another, drawing close and peering at us. His breath reeked. "Not even worth the time to strip." The two others circled behind to cut off our escape.
"Oh, I don't know," the first one replied, "might be fun to watch 'em scamper around in their tidy-whities. What do you think?" All four gave muted chuckles.
"Hey, don't get any ideas," I snapped back, trying to act as if I wasn't scared out of my wits. I took a step in front of Kat. "We start screaming and every man over there will be out hunting for us." I gestured back to the ruins of the town. "They've got guns – they'll shoot you."
The four paused. "Morgan's men don't leave no weapons," the leader spat out at last. "We've been tailing 'em in this direction for a month and haven't found a single rifle – good pickin's though," he added thoughtfully.
The second man said, "Yeah, and ya shouldn't take an attitude, sonny. We wasn't gonna hurt ya none." He stepped closer. I felt the others closing in from behind. "We're just lookin' for some new clothes, maybe a trinket or two. Right boys?"
Kat started taking off her sneakers. "Here." She tossed them over. "They won't fit, but maybe you can trade them for some which will." She slipped off her socks next. "I don’t know what you'll do with these, but they're yours."
I bent over to untie my sneakers and felt hands grab my shoulders. "You can do better than those dirty shoes, buddy." Putrid breath flooded my nose. "Strip!"
One of the others wrapped his arms around Kat. "I bet we can have some fun with this one," he grunted. "Tell ya what, Red. Keep the clothes and we'll take ya along with us. You'll be our mascot. Sounds good, huh?"
Kat let out a short "Help!" before he clamped his hand across her mouth.
"Take your hands off'a those two, you scoundrels!" Branches cracked and trees flattened, leaving a huge "U" shaped depression in the middle.
"What the –"
Beams of light shot out from the center of the empty space, hitting the skels on their feet. They leaped backward, keeping us in front of them as shields, while little puffs of smoke appeared on the exposed parts of their shirts. The men dropped us, howled, and swatted at the flames appearing on their clothes. They finally bolted; pinpoints of red lighting up their pants, as the skels tripped over each other in their rush to scramble out of range.
A shimmering ruffled the space between the fallen trees and our wayward friend appeared.
"Bev!" Kat ran up and threw herself on the nose of Bev in a hug. "You naughty girl," she exclaimed, "You had us so worried. We thought we'd lost you."
"Ain't none of those varmints gonna hurt my friends," Bev declared stoutly. "I showed those four."
I picked up Kat's shoes and socks and walked over to Bev. "We wouldn't have this trouble if you'd stayed put." I handed Kat back her footwear. "Where've you been?"
"I was bored," complained Bev, with a whine. "You guys took so long – I figured I'd take a walk." She added in her little girl voice, "Am I bad?"
"Yes, you were bad," I scolded. "We might have got ourselves killed. What if they'd been scavengers instead of skels?"
"Waaaa!"
"Hunter!" I swear Kat's eyes shot knives at me. "Now see what you've done." She said to Bev, "You're not bad, Bev. Hunter was being mean, just don't wander off again. Okay?"
"I-I promise," she sniffed. "This has been a bad day. It's the worse day of my life!"
"Hunter was afraid you'd been kidnapped, too, or hurt." Kat nodded vigorously to me and mouthed the words, say something nice, will you. "Weren't you?"
"Oh, yeah," I said quickly. "I meant to say, I was afraid you'd been stolen."
"Thanks, you guys are so sweet." She paused and asked in a meek voice, "Would you mind if I erased this memory, or at least filed it away in spam?"
"Uh, yeah, I guess so," I said.
"But remember you're not supposed to wander away," put in Kat.
"And you found a neat way to save Kat," I said. "Remember, guard Kat."
"And Hunter," Kat added, "Defend both of us, okay?"
"Sure, guys, I'd protect you anyway. You're my BFFs, right?" She fell silent, and then said, "Hi, what's up?"
"Open your hatch and let us in," I said in a tired voice, "we've wasted half the day searching for you. Let's not stand here talking."
We got in.
"Which way?" Bev said. Her front waved back and forth imitating a confused caterpillar.
"Everybody been appearing from the west," Kat said. "Didn't those skels say they followed Morgan's men for a month?"
"Yeah," I said darkly, "probably every skel and scavenger for a hundred miles is trailing them by now, picking through the pieces, targeting us. People keep saying Morgan City is the same way, too. Head west," I decided, "but stay to the north to avoid strangers."
"West it is, boss." Bev had reverted to her old chipper self, the last few minutes forgotten. She swung in a semi-circle and headed off.
****
>
We stopped in the evening beside a small stream and made camp. I would have let Bev continue driving through the night, but was afraid she'd get distracted and we'd wind up in the ocean. As the sky grew dark, and the stars twinkled above, the Greys' eye-in-the-sky passed overhead.
"We're being watched." I pointed upward. "Still there."
Kat tracked its slow progress across the heavens. "Yeah. It never goes away, does it?" She shook her head and stared at the fire. "They sure messed up this planet."
"Not according to Doc," I reminded her, "but even with New York and New Orleans going under, and Florida disappearing, I bet we could'a kept things together and rebuilt. We did when California broke off from the continent – remember? We read about it in history."
"Do you think your dad is still alive?" Kat asked suddenly.
The same thought was in the back of my mind all day. I put on a brave face and said, "Who, Pop? You couldn't kill him with a sledgehammer," I joked. "He survived the Canadian War right, didn't he? So did your dad. This can't be any worse than what they went through."
"What will we do when we find Morgan City?" Kat asked. In the firelight, her face filled with shadows. "Walk in as you did at the army camp of his and pretend you belong there?"
I shook my head and threw more sticks on the fire. "I don't think so. They were disorganized, and no one knew anybody else." I watched the sparks drift into the sky and mingle with the stars. "Morgan City is probably well guarded. I can't march in and pass myself off as one of his men."
"What are we going to do?"
"I don't know."
The next morning we climbed into hills following an old road, which twisted its way into the mountains. By the end of an hour I was so confused about where we were going, I almost decided to turn around.
When I asked Bev if she knew our location, she replied, "Not to worry, handsome, my map may be twenty years old, but it says right here construction will be completed –"
I groaned.
The going was slow and in some places, rockslides blocked the way and someone moved enough for a single vehicle to squeeze through. Even so, we were lucky we didn't meet anyone driving the other way, because we crept from one side of this miserable excuse for a highway to the other. The pavement heaved up from the snow and rain, pot marking the surface with holes; every time we hit one, Bev would yell, "Ouch! Son-of-a—! Why doesn't someone fix these things!"
"Just take it easy, Bev, will ya?" I advised. We had a mountain on one side, and a hundred foot drop-off on the other. "You keep trying to dodge those ruts and we're gonna find ourselves in freefall."
"Bev will be careful, won't you honey." Kat patted the instrument board and crossed her fingers. Rocks tumbled down from the slope above. Kat let out a wild squeak and grabbed the control panel until her hands were white and face pinched.
"Cautious Lisa is my name, tightrope walking is my game," quoted Bev. She hit a rut and her end tipped over the drop-off. "I've never lost a passenger yet."
"Let's not start," I muttered. Tension in my back and neck was killing me, blood pounded in my temple from gritting my teeth.
"Hunter, do you see what I see!" We topped the mountain highway. An access road led off the main path into a hollow on the other side. "Let's stop here and take a break," Kat suggested. "I think all of us need a chance to unwind."
"Sounds good," I agreed. "I want to stretch my legs anyway and catch my breath. Bev, rest time."
The access road was even bumpier and narrower than the main road, not paved at all. Instead, traces of gravel once lined the surface. More hazardous drop-offs flanked us on both edges. As we crunched along, rocks cascaded away to disappear into the tops of trees, poking up on either side. This was worse than driving on the main road and I would never have agreed to attempt this killer path if I'd known.
Kat's fingers tried hard to dig themselves into the armrest of her couch, and my heart pounded in my chest until we hit the flat. Bev kept rolling until we settled at a wide even swath of grass, which once was a rest area or turnaround for ground vehicles.
"There's a village," Kat exclaimed. A few dilapidated buildings peeked out from the bend of a dirt path, "and the place isn't wrecked. Maybe people live here and they'll give us directions to Morgan City."
Bev opened her hatch and we stepped out.
"Should we put Bev back in stealth mode?" Kat breathed as she stretched and touched her toes. "We don't want to scare anyone."
"Too late," I said, gesturing down the road. "We've got a reception committee – people coming."
A group of men and older boys trooped along the path and fanned out into a scrimmage line. They carried guns.
Big guns.
"What do we do?" Kat whispered.
"Stay calm. Their weapons can't hurt Bev. They're being cautious," I hoped they were being cautious. I said to Bev, "Keep us covered."
I strolled forward, raising my hands in the air. "Hi! My name's Hunter, this is Kat," I yelled. "We just pulled off the road to take a break and stretch our legs. Hope you don't mind."
They were dressed in overalls, many barefooted. I expected to hear banjo music playing in the background. They eyed us with suspicion and a tall man with a busy beard spoke up. "We don't hanker to foreigners in these parts, son." He kept a shotgun leveled at us.
"Sorry, I didn't know. If you want, we'll leave – didn't mean to bother you." I lowered my hands slightly, took Kat's arm, and whispered, "Let's get out of here."
"Didn't mean to scare ya none, son," the man called back. "You have anyone else in this contraption of yours?" He squinted and peered at Bev. "What in tarnation is this vehicle, anyway? Why ain't you home with yer parents?" His shotgun pointed toward the ground.
"I'm searching for my pop," I shouted. "He was captured by Black Morgan. We're trying to find him and get him back."
"Yer pa, huh?" The villagers whispered among themselves. The spokesman for the group nodded slightly to the others. They lowered their weapons. "A party of Morgan's men came yonder a couple of days ago heading west along the main road. Might have been yer pa was with them. They had a lot of prisoners." A mutter of agreement rose from the others.
"Gee, thanks for the info," I said and dropped my arms. Kat lowered hers with a sigh of relief. "Do you mind if we get some water, stretch our legs?" I asked. "We've been riding for hours."
The leader pursed his lips and nodded. "I reckon it won't hurt. We're First Creed here, usually don't let anyone in unless they take the oath, but ya be harmless enough –." He tucked his shotgun under his arm. "Expect ya can come in and rest a spell; maybe find ya some vittles." He strode forward. "My name's Jeb." He extended his hand.
I took it. "I'm Hunter, this is Kat," I said. The others crowded around, giving names I didn't catch as we walked along the path toward the village.
The houses reminded me of oversized chicken coops, and the chickens running around didn't help the picture any. Jeb led us to one of the larger shacks with a dirt front yard, where a rocking chair and old couch, with its stuffing poking out, rested on the front porch.
"Set." Jeb waved his gun at the couch.
The balance of our escort wandered off, two of the older boys separated from the others and sat with us. Three little girls tumbled out of the house and stared at us wide-eyed.
"Be right back," Jeb said. He entered the shack leaving us with the kids.
One of the boys leaned forward and asked "Where ya from – the big city?"
"Uh, a place called Paradise Cove, but it's not much of a city." I replied.
Kat beamed at the girls. "What's your names?"
The oldest of the three, maybe ten years old said, "My name's Reanna. You're pretty." The other girls giggled.
Jeb returned carrying two glasses of water and handed them to us. "Fresh from the pump," he said, "Told Mama we got two more fer supper." He settled in the rocking chair with his gun across his lap. A troubled expression crossed his face as he appraised us and then he said
, "You two young'un running all over the country in your vehicle by yourselves. Yer married, ain't ya?"
"Huh?" I took a quick glance at Kat. Her eyes were wide with surprise. "No, we're friends, nothing more."
Jeb shook his head. "T’aint right, young'uns living in sin." He paused and slapped his knees. "No helpin' it, I guess. We'll have to marry you two." He stood and walked back into the house.
"Huh? Wait." It was too late; he'd disappeared again. I said to Kat, "What the heck is happening?"
Kat shook her head, worried, "I don't know."
The oldest boy laughed at us and said, "Yer gonna get hitched." He bent close to the other kid and whispered something in his ear. They both laughed.
The three girls shouted, "Ya'll gonna have a wedding – wait right here!" and scampered off. They returned carrying flowers. Reanna tied a string around the stems of a bunch and presented it to Kat. "Here, ya'll need this." One of the other girls pushed a daisy into Kat's hair.
The oldest boy stood. "You'll be needen a best man, too." He strolled over to me carrying his gun and waved us up. "You two stand right here." He gestured to the steps of the front porch. "Pa will be right out."
Kat rose, giggling hilariously, and faced the door. She waved at me. "Hurry up, Hunter."
Events were moving too fast. One moment I was sitting, drinking water, the next . . . "Now wait a minute," I said, putting my glass down and standing. Happy faces surrounded me. I stared back in horror. "I don't know what's going on but –"
Kat took my hand. "Oh, Hunter, I'm sure it's a joke, don't be so serious."
Jeb walked out carrying a worn leather-bound book. "I see ya'll ready, huh?" he said with a smirk and nod of his head. "You two must be eager, I reckon." He opened the book, thumbed a few pages, and began to read:
"A boy shall leave his father, and a girl shall leave her parents. The children shall be joined, so they will not stray through life, but be faithful to one and other in their old age. So Mote it be!"
Jeb shouted the last words and slammed his book. "There, yer'll married now," he stated in satisfaction.
"But I –"
Jeb nodded his head toward Kat. "Well, don't stand there, son, kiss her." He pointed to Kat who was red in the face from laughing so hard. "She's yer bride."